


I came here (So you'd come for me)

by Wishopenastar



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Families of Choice, Family, Literally the least gory zombocalypse, Multi, Neil josten bs the kiwi, Zombie Apocalypse, less violence than canon, there's a lot of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:00:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24492406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wishopenastar/pseuds/Wishopenastar
Summary: The world is ending, there are very few people left and this might not be the best time to let his guard down and accept an entire Exy team in, but Neil Josten does that anyways.
Relationships: Matt Boyd/Danielle "Dan" Wilds, Neil Josten & Renee Walker, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 6
Kudos: 90
Collections: AFTG Exchange Spring 2020





	I came here (So you'd come for me)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SatiricalDraperies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SatiricalDraperies/gifts).



> This is for @bayta-darell, of whose prompts I picked a zombie apocalypse au and found family tropes.  
> It was great writing this and hopefully you like it! 
> 
> Thanks to @DeyaAmaya and @wishbonetea for beta reading this. Title from the Halsey song-haunting.

Neil looked at the fruit in his hand. The kiwi was not one of his favorite fruits, something about it's texture always made it feel like an attack to his mouth. But perhaps that's what he needed on some days, stolen fruits to attack his mouth. Besides if he didn't eat it, it would probably go to spoil even with the generator he had rigged up for the store. Smaller stores with simpler circuit configurations were a blessing and so was his vocational electronics class.

Neil took the kiwi to his mouth, instantly regretting his decision to not remove the peel but there was nothing to be done. He put his head back to lean against the freezer and stretched his feet ahead of him, massaging his knee. It was a bit bruised from a particularly ungraceful exit when he came across the owners of the shop in the seemingly deserted store.

The smell of smoke still lingered outside the store where Neil had lured them to burn them. 

The stench had become customary in the world, each city had a large pit, ever since three months ago when the UN had announced it to be the only possible way to save mankind. Each city did its best but now there were too few people surviving for any efficient carrial system to remain. The people who survived took upon themselves to burn as many zombies as they dared to everyday, in the early days it had been much harder to steel yourself to burn your neighbor who wore their work clothes like everyday when they came at you but survival instincts had prevailed.

Neil had never been a part of a city properly enough to be filled with uselessly sentimental thoughts when it came to his life. Even if he had been, hsi mother would never have let him get close enough to people. 

Neil's problem with burning had not even been the smell, several months in captivity with The Butcher would ensure anyone became intimately familiar with the smell of flesh burning, Neil was acquainted with the sensation too, as evidenced by the scars on his face. Neil's problem had been the memories of his mother the burning conjured up.

Mary Harford hadn't been a particularly good mother, but she had been the one to be with Neil for so long and now as he acknowledged the fact that her presence had shaped him he could also acknowledge the fact that she had fucked him up well and good when it came to trusting people.

Case in point—the Palmetto Foxes.They were the largest group alive and together. 

Neil had them met in his months on the run and they had offered to extend their group to include him. Neil had declined in all his wisdom gained from eight years of running with a paranoid woman, then five months in the captivity of the cruelest person in his life and then college lying low and many months relying on speed and the efficiency that came with being alone to evade the exponentially increasing zombies.

He still believed that his decision had been the right one and he held on to it even when he met any of the Foxes always travelling in their damned duos to forage and they inevitably opened their offer to him.

The worst of the bunch were probably either Matt or Nicky. Both were different in their methods to take him to come back with them but they unanimously ranked first.

Neil also refused to consider why he was always in the area when the Foxes were out. It surely didn't have anything to do with him wanting to make sure they were safe. 

The best of the bunch was probably Andrew because he never said a word unless it was a thinly veiled insult to Neil's very being. And he could work with that, insults were easy. Calling Andrew an asshole midget was easier than responding to the other people's kindness.

Speaking of assholes—there was a crash as someone staggered into the store and immediately triggered Neil's set up.

He grinned as he drew the racquet he had nicked from the college at the blonde head glaring at him from the mattress he had put in front of the trap.

"Do you need to do this every time?"

"Not really, no."

Neil looked at Andrew's feet around which his rope had looped impressively. He was trying to perfect his technique and Andrew was an excellent guinea pig, with all of his caution, he managed to get caught only  _ half _ the time.

If asked why he didn't try the traps on anyone else in the Foxes, Neil would have no answer. It was good that no one ever asked him that.

Andrew set off to look for food in the store while Neil sat back down to fight the weird taste of kiwi.

"Most people eat it peeled, you know?"

"I'm pretty sure the peel has a lot of vitamins. And we've established that no one who has survived until now is most people."

"You're a precious snowflake alright."

"You'll find the term is Special Snowflake."

"You'd have a better chance of surviving if you ate more than fruit."

"I have survived a lot worse than a few zombies. If I didn't know better I'd say you're worried about me."

"But you know better?" Andrew had completed his round of the store and his hands were full of granola bars and other junk to load into his car. He really had no place lecturing Neil in his opinion.

Neil looked up from his hands a bit covered in kiwi juice and nodded.

"Where is Kevin?" He asked to change the subject. 

"He's hom—at the university, I wanted quiet today." 

Neil didn't believe his words for a moment. Andrew might have kept his (completely unnecessary) promise about helping with the zombies but that didn't make him honest. 

"And you came looking for quiet in a place where there was most definitely a booby trap."

"Shut up, idiot. I want quiet."

Neil ginned and went back to the kiwi.

____

  


The Foxes were an attraction in the otherwise boredom of Neil's day. He never thought a day would come when literal battles fought against bloody creatures would be less of an entertainment than talking with people who were entirely too interested in his personal life. 

Neil managed to purposefully run into them a lot of times. He told himself that it was for the conversation—his mother hadn't been the best talker and his father was worse than her. But he knew he was a liar, that he was deceiving himself. 

It was for the sense of a burden shared that he sought out the Foxes. Neil had never before felt the comfort that crept up his belly and settled in his throat like a secret that felt good to nurture. 

The Foxes were safety in a way that he had never felt before and that made him want so much more as it simultaneously made him want to run again. 

Neil was walking with Dan and Matt when he realized that he would probably never run away. 

Palmetto was a tiny town, and the streets were clear except for the occasional zombie they quickly dispatched. Dan and Matt were holding hands as they argued about the wild improbability of Exy ever becoming more sensible. Neil had fallen a bit behind them— both in conversation and walking, so that he could observe them. 

Dan's hair was pulled up with a bandana and Matt pulled at it when Dan got vicious in the argument. Dan smacked his hand away and he laughed in mock indignation and turned to Neil to ask for comfort. Dan rolled her eyes at his ridiculousness and they ended up mock tackling each other. 

Neil felt a desire for the intimacy they had with each other.

"Did you ever climb trees as a child?" Dan asked when the ferocious albeit small argument ended. 

Neil nooded, the Baltimore property had several trees Neil had made a home in. 

"Do you want to right now?" She asked as if it was a perfectly normal question. 

"Yes." Neil replied because that was the perfectly normal reply.

They climbed trees that afternoon.

It felt pleasant to laugh about tiny scratches rather than worry about the big ones.

It happened when he was looking down the highest point of his tree at Matt who was waving from the ground at Dan on the tree beside Neil. The feeling in his throat came out of lips in a whisper,  _ I want this to continue however long it can. _

_ _____ _

  


It was three days later that Andrew tilted Neil's whole world on its axis and made him question everything. 

It didn't even start with Andrew. It started with Nicky and a kidnapping plan that actually worked because it was so innocuous. 

Neil had been in the process of bashing the two zombies that had invaded his house with his racquet when Nicky came there and pulled out a baseball bat to help him out. They fought for a few minutes and Neil was exhausted from swinging the pole in his hands when Nicky finally finished with the zombies in him. 

They dragged the bodies outside to burn. 

Neil didn't question Nicky's sudden presence. He was constantly popping in and out. He had just about let his guard down when Matt sprung up from behind him and tapped his hands in question. 

Neil nodded precariously, he was confused about what was going on but he trusted Matt. 

_ He should have rescinded the trust _ , he thought bitterly as Matt scooped him up and put him on his shoulders and  _ ran. _

Matt ran like his coach was offering free steak to the one who clocked the least. 

Neil had attempted to get off for a few seconds before realizing it was futile and becoming limp. He'd almost enjoyed being kidnapped like that, it proved to be a pleasant contrast to his father's kidnapping methods for sure.

Nicky who ran beside Matt whooped and the empty streets reverberated.

They ended up in Palmetto University.

Neil was acquainted with the buildings, having spent months getting vocational classes there but Nicky led them to the dorms.

And Neil was faced with an intervention.

_________

  


The intervention started at the topic of his not eating properly. Neil argued that fruits were healthier than granola bars and  _ had  _ glucose in them, but his arguments were useless. They only led to Andrew being futilely scolded for 54 seconds before all attention was on him again.

It moved onto how he was constantly jogging about town with only a lighter and an exy racquet for protection when there was a  _ stadium  _ right there in the college.

It then moved to petty arguments about how he had a better stamina than Kevin which segued into a discussion of heights. Which led to him almost being punched by Aaron saved only by his girlfriend Katelyn who had surprising arm strength. 

There was a lot of unnecessary yelling before the main point came up. Which was that all the Foxes unequivocally wanted him to join their ranks. 

He looked at Andrew who gave him an almost companionable glare, Neil said he'd consider. 

He was then marched to another dorm where newspapers were spread on the floor and food was laid on them.

Neil hadn't seen such a spread for a single person in a very long time. He was sat and Abby piled food on his plate and left, leaving Andrew to ensure that he actually ate. 

_________

  


There was no space left in his stomach by the time he was finished. Neil just lay down in the surprisingly comfortable dorm bed and let out an embarrassing cry of pleasure. 

Andrew, who was on the other side of the room with a book in his hands, looked up at that. 

"Stop."

Neil realized that Andrew was talking of the moaning. 

"Do you have a problem?" 

"I don't. You sound like a porno," Andrew said, completely deadpan. It took a while longer this time for Neil to connect the admittedly scattered dots. 

_ Andrew didn't have a problem with him sounding like a porno _ . 

"You once said that you hated me." Neil sat up as he spoke. 

"Did I now?" Andrew had put down his book and placed his chin in his hands. 

"Yeah."

"Doesn't mean I wouldn't blow you," he said and Neil's world tilted.

"Oh."

" _ Oh _ . Indeed."

Neil fell down against the bed again and wished he didn't have to get up to return again. He fell asleep on that bed, Andrew was still reading in the room and Neil fell asleep.

That's what it took for him to prolong his stay with the Foxes for a few days. 

_____

  


Renee had always accompanied Andrew when Kevin didn't. Neil hadn't talked to her alone since a fateful day when she'd offered to teach using knives to Neil so that he could better defend himself. 

Renee didn't say much when she came into the stadium where Neil was running, she only joined him. Neil ran as many laps as he could and Renee kept up. They finally sat when Neil's thighs started to feel like they'd burst. Neil poured water over his head as Renee drank hers, watching him almost curiously, "How have you been Neil?" She asked as if she wanted the answer to file it. 

"I've been fine." 

"Did you think about staying here?" Neil's gut clenched with how painfully he wanted to stay.

He could have everything. 

Dan and Matt laughing, Kevin teaching him chess, Nicky cutting his hair when it got into his eyes while Allison screamed about traversities in the background and then had him dress in nicked clothes, Renee running alongside him. He felt kindly towards even Aaron and Seth at that moment. 

He could have Wyamack worrying over his diet like a father. And Andrew wanting him, protectively sitting when he slept. 

"Why do you want me so much?" 

"We take care of our own. And you are a part of us." Renee was twisting the bottle in her hands, the water in it was warm from having been boiled for use earlier. 

"Why?"

"The first time Coach took me in, I asked him the same thing. He—never said anything. But I think that I know now.

None of us have a family in the way others do, and yet I thank God for what I do have, which is better than any other family."

Renee's voice was steady as always but Neil could hear the smile in it. He said nothing, waiting for her to finish.

"It's not easy right now. I don't know what happened to my mother, no one has any idea of the people they care about. The distance feels so weird. It makes us care more about the people we do have. You're a friend to us, isn't it natural for you to slowly become like family?" She finished with a small smile, completely unaware of the turmoil her word choices had raised in him.

_ Friends. Family. _

He could have everything and nothing was stopping him. The world might be ending but he was good at fighting and so we're the Foxes. 

He cleared his throat, to say the words he'd repeat over and over to different people that day. 

"I'm staying."

_______

  


A few months later

_______

  


There was a ray of light coming in from the rip in the blinders. Neil shifted as it fell into his eyes. Normally he would have been up by that time, up and outside jogging, but Andrew's hand was on his chest and Neil didn't want to get up when he could simply stare at the face all morning.

Andrew woke up eventually, there were crease lines on his face from his cheek having been pressed on the pillow. His eyes crinkled at Neil's staring.

"Admit it, you are a junkie." That was the argument they had fallen asleep to after waking Neil for his watch, it was just like Andrew to bring it up again the first thing in the morning. Neil had denied being so dependent but in the morning light with the only source of warmth being the ratty blanket he had salvaged from the ravaged apartment, Neil was willing to concede. 

"Fine. I am a junkie. Does that make you my drug?"

"You need to up you game if that's the best you can come up with, or—." Andrew searched for a suitable punishment. 

"Or what? You'll leave me for Kevin?"

"I'll throw you to the zombies for sins of terrible flirting."

"I'll drag you with me."

Andrew lifted his hand to bring it to Neil's face, letting it hover for a second before Neil closed his eyes to assent. There had been a time a few months ago when he would have taken a sharp breath at the touch being allowed and being there, but they had grown past it. 

They lay tangled for a few minutes feeling lazy. It was only when Neil's wristwatch beeped to show it was nine am that they stood to go outside and meet the other Foxes.

  
  



End file.
